2. Ellie #2
I raised one brow, glancing at him with interest. Just the fact that Blake was willing to walk away and leave Natalie in her lawyer’s capable hands while dealing with her abusive ex-husband told me all I needed to know about Cameron and their situation.
“Maybe I’ll just check in with her,” I said, and Blake nodded, letting me slip away. “Catch Chloe to say goodbye if I can.”
My best friend and her daughter were probably fine.
But I had a feeling that if I stood there for too long with her eldest brother, he’d turn the conversation back to me again. Or worse, start talking about his brother—the youngest London.
The boy I knew better than anyone else, who grew into the man who knew me better than anyone else.
And now we were like strangers.
It was easier that way, I think.
But I wouldn’t expect Blake to understand that.
Natalie dropped me off at my hotel once the party wrapped up.
After I’d caught Cameron asking if she wanted to come over to his place tonight, I had to convince her to leave me to my own devices.
I was not going to be the reason that my best friend didn’t get dicked down by her hot lawyer on one of the rare nights she wasn’t saving lives or being a super-mom.
Natalie flashed me a guilty look anyway, but I wasn’t sure if it was because she felt bad for not spending time with me or because she knew what they were doing could get them both in a lot of trouble.
I encouraged it anyway. Girl deserved it, and I deserved to get the dirty replay at brunch with mimosas tomorrow.
One of us should get laid on Saturday night, and it sure as hell didn’t look like it would be me. Besides, Natalie was owed a million good orgasms after dealing with Korey for the last decade. I, at least, had the memories of a good sex life.
With her brother.
Who I’d walked away from tonight without another word, telling myself it was for the best, even if the continuous ache in my muscles told me otherwise. My body disagreed with my actions—head and heart and limbs unaligned.
But what would I have done? What would I have said? Words seemed so small, so inconsequential for what we used to be, and I didn’t trust my body not to betray me. I didn’t trust what I might do if I got too close to someone I wasn’t used to not touching.
It was good that I was here, alone, away from the Londons again.
My boss had put me up in a boutique hotel this weekend since, technically, I was in Boston on official business.
I’d attended a gap analysis training yesterday and had a client meeting on Monday, otherwise I never would have picked this weekend to visit Natalie.
I loved her family, but being around all of them wasn’t the kind of pain I liked putting myself through voluntarily.
However, when Natalie told me she mentioned to Noah I’d be in town, and Noah insisted I should come, I couldn’t just…
not go. That wouldn’t be fair to the Londons.
They didn’t do anything wrong; it wasn’t their fault I was something of a coward.
Striding through the colorful, modern hotel lobby, I made my way to the elevator, still feeling the slightest buzz of alcohol flowing in my veins. It was just enough to make reality a little lighter, but not enough that I’d have a headache in the morning—the perfect place to be.
I hummed along to a melody I didn’t know but was predictable enough as I appreciated the art deco design touches and waited for the sleek elevator doors to open. At the echoing ding, I walked inside, pressing the button for the fourth floor.
No one else joined me, and I bounced my knees, impatient for the doors to close again.
They started to, and I sagged against the wall, starting to daydream about my bed and the down comforter I’d soon be curled up in while watching the one remaining episode of the BBC’s Sherlock I’d purposely left for tonight because I knew witty intellectual rivalry coming to a head was the best pick-me-up I had in my arsenal, and I’d need it.
But when the elevator doors were barely six inches from sealing me inside, a hand shot forward to stop it.
I gasped, fully expecting and preparing myself to witness a limb being ripped from a person’s body, but then I gasped again, softer, when the doors didn’t crush the life out of anyone, opening instead to show who the intruder was.
A mop of blonde hair that I knew was soft to the touch, striking blue eyes that once danced whenever they’d land on me, and the tall, hulking figure of Sully London strode into the elevator.
My pulse spiked. My breaths grew shallow, simply from the sight of him.
And I knew immediately that I’d been right to avoid him tonight.
Because this was already too much—this proximity.
My brain scrambled, looking for a way out of this, while my body—the damn thing—loosened, grew warm, flushed. Because it was Sully.
It was always Sully.
I forced myself into the corner and stilled, like maybe he wouldn’t notice me if I didn’t move.
To be fair, he didn’t. Not at first. His head was bent, staring at his feet like he had to concentrate on each foot he put in front of the other. By the time he looked up and saw me, the elevator doors had already closed. Meaning we were alone, and there was no escape.
A flicker of something passed over his expression before he schooled it.
“Eleanor,” he rasped.
I barely repressed a shiver from his deep, low voice calling me a name that no one used.
No one but him.